


Forgotten Love Stories

by SillyBunny88



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Anxiety, Blackmail, F/M, Fights, First Dates, Fluff, Jealousy, Love, Multi, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Realization, Unrequited Love, Yandere Eren Yeager, Young Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2015-01-30
Packaged: 2018-02-26 14:21:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2655197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SillyBunny88/pseuds/SillyBunny88
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reader-insert oneshots that are dedicated to the boys of Attack on Titan/SnK.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Comfy Castle- Armin AU

 “(y/n)? Where are you?”

You heard your boyfriend’s voice travel from the front door and up to your bedroom. Smiling widely you pulled another blanket taunt over a nearby chair; this creation had been in the works for over 4 hours and you wanted it to be just perfect. What better way was there to spend a day off than building a blanket castle in your room?

“Hey sweetie, I just came to- what are you doing?” Armin’s blond head poked into your doorway. As you glanced at him over your shoulder you couldn’t help but giggle a little. “What are you laughing at?” He asked innocently while blushing.

You shook your head while contemplating what other pillows should be pilfered from around the house to make it perfect. “Nothing,” you replied distractedly, “you’re just adorable.”

Behind you Armin blushed slightly harder and walked into what was once a bedroom but what was now a fortress ready for battle. Your relationship was tender, only three weeks old, but he had figured that he would’ve been able to at least grow comfortable when you called him cute- although that seemed not to be the case at all.

“You did this all day?” He questioned as he placed his book bag on the floor next to the door.

A stuffed bear was propped up next to the main opening of the fort before you answered. “No it’s only been for a few hours really.”

“You didn’t text me all day or even tell me you’d be out today… I was worried…” The hurt in his voice was slight but noticeable, and you winced.

“I’m sorry.” You walked away from your creation of the year and over to your always fretting boyfriend. “I didn’t mean to leave you guessing like that.”

Throwing your arms around his neck you pulled him flush to your body and relished in the warmth he gave you. “I just didn’t feel like hitting the books today so I took a day off is all,” you explained softly.

Hesitantly Armin wrapped his arms around your waist; he was honestly a little upset with you (he had worried all day and managed to annoy anyone within a three foot radius by asking them none stop what-if questions). His New Year’s resolution had been to stop being such a pushover- could this be the first moment where he actually honored it?

He prepared himself to get tough.

And then the idea was quickly thrown out when you kissed his cheek and smiled at him.

Was there anyway that he could be upset with you right now? This perfect angel sucked out all anger in him with just one smile. Your beautiful (e/c) eyes twinkled like no others and your (h/c) locks had an addictive smell; sweet and fragrant but not in an overpowering way. His mouth went dry.

“You okay there, sweetie?”

“Yeah, sorry I just got a little distracted…” he trailed off and when you raised an eyebrow he smiled nervously. “You look very pretty today- not that you don’t always look pretty! Because you do, you’re always gorgeous.”

A breathy laugh left your lips as you pondered; how did you manage to end up with such a boy like this? You’d never been especially different and you never really regarded anyone else as special either- but when you saw him for the first time in your Algebra II class last year your breath was stolen from you. Such an adorable face, sweeter than anyone else, smarter than anyone else, beautiful golden hair and eyes that reminded you of the ocean…

How you managed to be lucky enough to end up with him was still a mystery to you.

You smiled and kissed his nose. “Next time I’ll make sure to give you a heads-up. I pinky promise, darling! Now let’s try out this fort!”

Armin didn’t even have a chance to reply before you dove into the mountain of blankets and pillows. He stood there for a moment in thought- he wasn’t even supposed to be over your house right now. He was currently breaking the cardinal rule of not being allowed over unless one of your parents was home. Your dad had made that explicitly clear.

The fact that he was also cleaning his shotgun at the kitchen table in such a casual fashion drove home that point all the more.

He didn’t mind though, it was a rule that he could respect completely. It made sense considering the fact that if it didn’t exist it could possibly leave open the opportunity to… Armin’s face went through many shades of red in a short amount of time as his mind trailed off to… _that_.

 _Oh my god. Noooo, bad Armin._ He whined mentally and scolded himself as you called out his name from within your labyrinth. “I just came over to check on you and drop off the work you missed- I shouldn’t even be here…”

Your head of (h/c) hair popped out for a brief moment so you could waggle your eyebrows at him. Then you quickly disappeared and called out, “Oh dear, I didn’t know my baby Armin had such a filthy mind. Sounds like you’ve been hanging out with Reiner too much lately.”

The adorable boy stuttered incoherently for a few moments.

“Come on just get in here, silly! I just want you to see all the hard work I put into this. And then after that you can go home with your filthy mind,” you giggled loudly.

 _Will I want to leave though- gah! Yes! Yes, I will want to go home!_ Armin dragged his hands over his face a few times. “Alright, sweetie, I’ll take a look but then I’m going! I don’t need one of your parents coming home and seeing this.” He crouched down and crawled in and then proceeded to be immediately shocked.

Armin found himself in what seemed to be the main hallway of his love’s creation; you had been so creative with the way you utilized that sheets that there were multiple rooms and hallways created. What acted as the ceiling was tall enough that he was able to crawl along without a problem. After crawling around for a few moments, Armin found what he assumed was a living room of sorts.

You hadn’t been waiting for long and easily passed the few minutes by watching the television that you had implemented within your design. Strewn across the floor, you rolled over to give your boyfriend a large smile. “You impressed?”

Armin returned the smile, “Very much so. If you put half the amount of work it took to do this into your school work you’d probably be a straight A student.” He couldn’t help but laugh softly when you made an adorable face at him. “Really though, it’s quite magnificent.”

“Thank you, good sir. Here,” you patted the pillow next to you, “sit. Relax. Take a load off.”

His protests died at his lips. “Alright I guess,” the boy with sky colored eyes scooted himself next to his girlfriend and put your head in his lap. While running his fingers through your hair (an action which you loved and reacted to like a cat) he glanced at the glowing television. “So what are we watching?”

“A movie called _Mr. and Mrs. Smith_. I didn’t used to like it but then it started to grow on me after my mom watched it all the time.” You replied while humming in content.

He turned his attention back to the screen where a man and woman were hashing it out. It seemed like the type of movie that you would like; lots of fighting and explosions and shooting.

_I’ll just stay until the end of this and then-_

The fighting ended and the kissing began. Then articles of clothing were being removed. Then Armin realized that what had been innocent fighting was quickly escalating into a scene that he didn’t need to see; he froze up immediately.

“Oh will you look at the time!” He exclaimed like his perception of volume had been diminished. “I should be going!”

What had been easy to get into was now suddenly extremely difficult to escape from once he scrambled away from you; he found that there was no way to get out fast enough and when he did finally manage to escape it was more like being ejected as he stumbled across your floor. He made his way quickly to where he left his bag.

“Armin?” You called through your giggling. “Armin it’s not even explicit! Look it’s already over- ha you know what that says about Brad Pitt.”

“I’m just- your work is just going to be on your desk! I-  I’ll see you tomorrow,” Armin’s face rarely burned like this.

Crawling out from the fortress, you giggled as your bashful boyfriend fumbled with the books and papers he was handling. “I’m sorry, Armin, I honestly forgot about that scene. Do you really have to go?”

“Uh yeah, sorry. Um,” he gestured crudely to the stack of papers and books on the desk as he shimmied himself into the backpack, “there’s your work and uh- see you tomorrow. Bye!” He was out the door before you could even give him a kiss for his departure. Your boyfriend must have raced down the stairs like a madman because you heard the distinct slam of the front door being closed seconds later.

After crawling back into the cushiony home and flipping channels for a while, you started to feel bad. You decided finally to grab your cellphone and send him a quick text; your fingers produced words that asked if he was okay and saying that you were sorry. And then you decided to wait to see if your adorable boyfriend was willing to forgive you for, once again, teasing him. A smile covered your face and warmth bloomed in your chest when his reply came.

_It’s fine, sweetie <3 I just hope that you come to school tomorrow so I can see your beautiful face <3_

And then you found yourself rolling your eyes slightly when you received the second text message.

_And make sure to do your work that I brought you!_


	2. Smiles- Marco AU

“Smile~”  
  
“I swear to god, Jean. Turn the phone off before I snap it in half and shove it down your throat.”  
  
“Tough words coming from the girl with a bunny face.”  
  
“Shut up.”  
  
“Well I don’t think I will just because-”  
  
You turned towards him sharply and gave him the deadliest, coldest, downright ugliest glare you could manage. For a few moments it seemed to work because he shut his pie hole for the first time in 30 minutes. Then his mask broke; the corners of his mouth twitched rapidly before his lips pulled into a grin. He started snickering.   
  
You frowned and turned back towards the front of the room.   
  
Study hall with Hanji (as she insisted all her students call her) was never- never ever in the history of ever- this quiet and calm. However, she wasn’t in today and instead the rather eccentric (even more so than Hanji… maybe not) teacher, Mr. Zacharius was in charge.   
  
He didn’t attempt to do much beyond when he first came into the class and explained rather quietly that Hanji wasn’t going to make it in on account of the… Titans? You weren’t sure exactly what that meant but you didn’t question it. Shortly after than he took his seat at the teacher’s desk and hasn’t moved since.  
  
“Hey, at least you learned your lesson about falling asleep in class sitting next to Connie.” Jean leaned back his chair and put his hands behind his head smugly. So close. Sooo close. If a butterfly just landed on his nose…  
  
“Right now I’m too busy planning his demise, and toying with ideas for yours as well, so shut up.”  
  
“Come on, (y/n), lighten up.” He chuckled deeply. “If you’re lucky maybe you’ll be able to avoid Marco for the rest of the day. Probably not possible though since you loooovvvveeee hii- gah!” Jean’s amber eyes snapped open and he flapped his arms for a few moments before his balance was beyond saving and the chair tipped over onto the floor; he let out a grunt when his back hit the ground. Then he groaned.   
  
“Sorry there, buddy. I think my foot tapped your chair,” you explained with false sincerity. Jean was disgruntled by your faux-apology and glared at you which only made you laugh so hard you had to clutch your stomach.   
  
“Hahaha! You should see your face- ahahaha! Awe poor Jean! Why the long face- oh wait that’s how it always looks. Ha!”  
  
“You’ve been hanging around that damn Jaeger too long,” he growled as he got off the floor and fixed his chair. He continued to grumble incoherently about said boy for a few minutes as you dug through your school bag.  
  
 _There has to be something interesting to do in here_ , you thought to yourself. Dammit there were still 25 minutes to kill in this period and you refused to solely endure Kirstein the whole time. Suddenly your hands found a notebook that you had forgotten was in there and you pulled it out. Before you could flip through it though a heavy backpack was dropped on your desk and you jumped.  
  
“Glad to see that neither of you idiots have changed,” Reiner chuckled before plopping down at the desk in front of you.  
  
“The feeling is mutual,” you deadpanned. “Shut up before I punch you- I know what’s on my face,” was added quickly when Reiner went to open his mouth again.  
  
The empty threat solicited chuckles from both boys but Jean was the first to speak again as he started chatting with Reiner. Having the conversation finally directed away from the topic of your face was relieving; this was especially true since you had just remembered the exact contents in this notebook.   
  
While Jean teased you mercilessly about a crush on Marco and you denied it outright- he wasn’t actually far off. Because this notebook was choked full of sappy confession notes that should never be seen by the public and rigged games of MASH where you and Marco had a bajillion babies and a mansion and multiple exotic pets.   
  
You stared at the cover trying to figure out what to do with it.  
  
Next to you, Jean was able to notice something interesting as he continued to spout nonsense on some football stats and his fantasy team lineup. The notebook you were holding had a slip of paper peeking out of the bottom. " _With unrequited love_ " it said and with your signature was signed below that. Sirens and bells went off in his head. To hell with football stats and that crap- he wanted to know what was in that notebook.  
  
You had failed to notice the conniving look that manifested in Jean’s eyes.   
  
“You know what?” You asked pointlessly while placing the notebook back into your bag. “I’m just going to go to the bathroom and try to wash this crap off. Then you can eat your words, Kirstein.”   
  
“Uh huh, you go do that but just make sure you don’t miss Easter,” He replied distractedly.  
  
You said nothing but glared at a chuckling Reiner before getting permission from Mr. Zacharius and leaving the room. Of course it only made Reiner burst into a hearty laugh; a girl with a drawn on bunny nose, whiskers, and buck teeth was far from scary.   
  
In a flash the Kirstein boy had your (f/c) backpack in his lap and was rifling through it. When Reiner started to ask him what the hell he was doing Jean shushed him and told him in a low voice to make sure no one else in the class realized. The tank of a blond raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything else as he observed the rest of the students.  
  
Sasha was munching away on a family-sized (serves one Sasha) bag of potato chips nearby- she was completely distracted. At the front of the room the famous trio of Eren, Armin, and Mikasa were keeping to themselves mainly; Eren was discussing bands with Mikasa while Armin was split between the conversation and the book he was reading. Mr. Zacharius had his powerful nose in a magazine while sitting at the desk and was so detached from the class he didn’t notice Thomas and Nac having a game of spitball while Mylius watched on with apprehension and Minna cheered.  
  
“Aha!” Jean whispered harshly and caught Reiner’s attention.  
  
“That’s not yours- I’m pretty sure (y/n) wouldn’t be very happy if she found you going through her shit.”  
  
Jean rolled his eyes as he flipped to the first page, “No shit, Sherlock. But this is what revenge is. She should know better than to- holy crap.” His eyes widened as he took in the first page and flipped through the next few.  
  
Abandoning all feelings of his earlier caution Reiner leaned over the desk to peek a look. “What? What is it?”  
  
“Pfffftt,” Jean stifled his laughter with his hand. “I knew (y/n) had a thing for Freckles but I didn’t think it was this bad.” He shoved the notebook towards the other boy.  
  
“Oh. Wow she actually plays MASH- I mean- what’s MASH?”  
  
Jean cocked an eyebrow but dismissed it. “Must be difficult to marry the person you want to in a game of MASH when you write down only one name multiple times. Listen to this one- they’re going to live near the beach, be married on a cliff overlooking the ocean, have 332 children, and own an animal shelter together. Geez this is gold.”  
  
The boys snickered together for a few moments until they started to flip around again. The next few pages yielded crude sketches of two figures kissing and cuddling- they weren’t very good but the freckles gave a hint. Lots of hearts were drawn… lots and lots of hearts.  
  
“I can’t believe this notebook is basically dedicated to her crush on Marco,” Reiner said while smirking.  
  
“Never mind dedicated to Marco, it’s more like a shrine to Marco,” Jean chuckled in reply. “Oh oh oh! I think this is a love letter! It says  _‘I watch you when you smile and my heart feels light. Sometimes our hands brush and I feel like I’m about to faint. You probably think I’m odd and cold-hearted but regardless of that all, I think you’re the most wonderful boy there is and I love you so much.’_ ”  
  
Both boys were quiet for a moment.  
  
“I didn’t know that she loved loved him,” Jean started while staring at the page in disbelief. “I always teased her about but I just figured she had a crush on him at best.”  
  
“We need to tell him,” Reiner pointed out.   
  
“She’s going to kill us- not even one of those threats. She’s actually going to kill us.”  
  
Reiner rubbed his chin. “I don’t think she would if we did her a favor-  _thee_  favor.” Jean gave him a look Reiner rolled his eyes and continued, “If we get them together and she ever finds out then maybe we’ll get a presidential pardon.”  
  
The sound of the classroom door opening had both boys scrambling. They started tossing the notebook back and forth like a hot potato while whispering harshly at each other for the other boy to take it. Finally shoving the notebook on his lap to hide it underneath the desk, Jean shushed Reiner.   
  
Their hearts were pounding.  
  
“Well that didn’t really work…” you whined while massaging your now sore face. The marker that Connie had used definitely wasn’t coming off quite yet. You paused when you finally got to your spot and sensed the substantial tension. “What’s up with you guys? You’re kind of acting weird…”  
  
“Nothing. Nothing at all- what do you mean we’re acting weird? You’re acting weird!”  
  
“Alright, horseface, no need to get so defensive,” you groaned as you raised your hands.  
  
The last minutes of study hall were spent in silence which you didn’t question too much since it was a nice change. It was very strange though.   
  
While you busied yourself with coloring a children’s menu that was in your bag for some reason you could see Reiner out of the corner of your eye sitting very stiff in his desk. His head was basically pushed into the pages of a book- in such a way though that it wasn’t possible for him to actually read it. Jean, you also noticed, was sitting next to you very stiffly as well and had pulled his chair extremely close to his desk.  
  
 _Can he even breathe like that? Eh. Boys will be boys I guess_ , you reminded to yourself while trying to pick what color the starfish should be.  
  
The bell rang to end class so you and Reiner stood up but Jean remained glued to his seat.  
  
“Uh Jean,” you attempted to get his attention, “you realize it’s the end of class… right?”  
  
He looked at you for a brief moment and cleared his throat. “Yeah yeah, I know. It’s just… this chair is so comfortable I think I’m just going to sit here for a couple more minutes. What are you? The chair police?”  
  
“Oh... kay?”  
  
When you finally left while throwing the two boys a confused look, Reiner started to laugh, “Haha it looks like you’re so used to just spitting out the truth that you suck at lying.”  
  
Jean rolled his eyes as he swiftly moved to hide the notebook within his own possessions. “Yeah I know- by the way thanks a lot for the help.”  
  
“Well considering your nature I figured that you would’ve come right out and said it. Besides you seemed to have it all under control.”  
  
“I’m honest, not stupid.”  
  
Reiner smacked Jean on the back in a friendly fashion as they walked out of the room and into the bustling hallway. “Yeah you keep telling yourself that, buddy. So what’s the game plan now?”  
  
Jean ran his hand through is hair as he answered, “I have next period with Marco so I guess I’ll tell him then. After that we drop the notebook in her locker and pretend the whole never happened as Marco does whatever Marco chooses to do.”  
  
“Think it’s going to go well?”  
  
“I have no idea.”  
  
  
It was finally the end of the day and thank the gods that you made it out alive- it also seemed that the gods had been shining down on Connie as well because he was able to evade you the whole day. Around you the hallway had become incredibly noisy as a plethora of students made a dash towards freedom. At the moment you were sifting through your locker to collect the materials and papers that you needed to bring home.  
  
 _I can put this Algebra book in my locker… I need to take my Biology textbook home though. Oh and I should dump the extra notebooks in here too…_  
  
Suddenly you froze. The notebook? That one specific notebook…where was it?   
  
Locker? Nope.   
  
Bag? Nope.   
  
Hands? Negative.  
  
 _Oh son of a-_  
  
“(y/n!)” A voice called out from among the crowd.  
  
You turned around to see a smiling Marco walking towards you; you nearly bit your tongue off. God he was cute with that smile and those eyes- it wouldn’t be a good idea to even get you started on his freckles. It’s like looking at the night sky and seeing the constellations…  
  
“Earth to (y/n)?” Marco asked while waving a hand in front of your face.  
  
“Ah, yes!” Snapping out of your trance you grabbed his hand to stop his actions before you realized that you were touching him; you felt your face flame and let go of his hand quickly. “Yeah- uh… Hi Marco. Did you need me?”  
  
“Not specifically… I was just on my way to basketball practice and thought I’d say hi to you.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
Marco looked at you concerned, “(y/n), do you not like me coming over just to say hi to you?”  
  
“Yes- no. I mean kind of- I don’t know. I’m sorry, I just realized that I lost this really important notebook and I have no clue where it is.”  
  
An emotion you didn’t recognize flashed over Marco’s face for a moment before he smiled, “Well, (y/n), maybe after practice I could help you find it?”  
  
 _Why does he keep saying my name so much? It sounds so nice coming out of his mouth- oh my god I could just kiss him right now! No! Focus (y/n)! Focus! I just have to get through this awkward exchange then I can sink into the floor forever because chances are that someone has found that notebook already._  
  
“Uh, maybe. Thanks,” you replied tersely then bit your lip. If you said too many words at once it’d be likely you’d end up with diarrhea of the mouth and something embarrassing would slip out.  
  
“Then maybe after that we could go get some ice cream at that new place,” Marco dared to suggest. He had been so sure earlier that the notebook Jean showed him was fake- it had to be. (y/n) was the most gorgeous girl in the school so Marco never dreamed that she would have feelings for him… specifically such positive ones.  
  
Distracted by the prospect of the missing notebook, you didn’t catch on to what he was hinting at as you closed your locker. “Yeah that sounds good. It’s the perfect day for ice cream although I should probably fix my face first- on account of the bunny features and all.”  
  
“I think you look fine like that, (y/n).”  _You look gorgeous no matter what…_  “And what about this weekend, are you doing anything? We could go see a movie one night,” Marco continued to push onward. Honestly though he was growing exasperated with your distracted nature.  
  
“That sounds nice,” you replied while checking the outer pockets of your bag for the notebook despite the fact that there was no way it could fit in there. “I haven’t seen any advertisements lately though so I don’t know exactly what’s playing but…” You trailed off when you noticed that Marco had stepped very close to you.  
  
When you looked up his face was only a couple of inches away. His hand came up to move a misplaced piece of (h/c) hair away from your eyes; he twirled it between his fingers for a moment before tucking it back in its proper place. He gave you a breathtaking smile.  
  
Never mind your face being hot earlier, now it was flaming.  
  
“Uh- I… hi,” you finally squeaked out.  
  
He laughed softly but made no move to move away from you. “Is what I found out true?”  
  
“What you found out? True…?”  
  
“That you love me, is that true?”  
  
For a few moments you flapped your lips like a fish. Suddenly it felt like there wasn’t enough oxygen in the air. Your fingertips sizzled. Your heart was loud enough that you were sure that Marco could hear it too.  
  
“Is it, (y/n)?” Marco brushed a thumb over your cheek.  
  
Finally you were able to make a sound that resembled a yes. And just to make sure that he truly understood you, you found some force deep inside of you to nod your head once.  
  
Marco’s face broke out into a boyish grin. “That’s good to hear,” Marco admitted while he backed up slightly and scratched his head, “because I feel the same- well maybe it’s a little rushed to say that I already love you but I like you. A lot. The potential for me loving you is definitely there…” Marco trailed off and started to blush.  
  
You processed his words as he shifted nervously. He hadn’t returned his feelings of love but you didn’t mind because it was slightly rushed- you guys had only known each other for a couple of years and didn’t hang out as much as one might hope. But regardless of all of that, he had admitted that he liked you a lot, with the definite potential to love. That was trillions of leagues better than what you had expected.  
  
“I get it if maybe you’re a little upset with me for not returning exact feelings-”  
  
“I’m not,” you interrupted with a small smile, “I completely understand and I’ll take that any day over anything else.”  
  
The freckled boy grasped your hands in his own as he beamed at you. “So then I believe at this point in the interaction we should establish that we’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”  
  
You giggled, “That sounds right to me.”  
  
“So then we are,” he agreed while pulling his hands up to his lips and kissing your knuckles. “I’m going to go to practice; you can come with me if you want. Then afterwards how about we go get something to eat, Bunny?”  
  
“That sounds- wait. Bunny?” You threw him as look as you walked next to him.  
  
He chuckled while squeezing your hand. “I can’t help it! You look adorable, (y/n).”  
  
“Whatever,” you mumbled while blushing and fighting off a smile.  
  
He bumped you softly with his shoulder and smiled even bigger than before. “You look gorgeous when you smile, (y/n). Whether you have bunny features drawn on you or not.”  
  
You allowed yourself to smile at him as you replied with a thanks.  
  
“And don’t worry,” Marco went on, “I’ll make sure that Jean gives you back your notebook.”  
  
“Jean has what now?”


	3. Love Nose- Jean AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No the title of this isn't a typo ^^; it's actually both a pun and related to the story! Thank you for reading me and supporting me in something that I love to do :)
> 
> You're all wonderful and I love you all :)

“So you want to know how to kiss a girl?” You questioned Jean.  
  
“Well… yeah, that’s what I said wasn’t it?”  
  
“You reaallllyyyy want to know?” You questioned again while drawing out ‘really’ and leaning closer. Eventually you were so close to him that you could feel his breath on your face.  
  
“Um… yes?”  
  
“Okay. I’d start by pulling her in so close that our bodies are touching each other,” you drawled out while pushing your body flush to his. “And then… I’d look deep into her eyes while holding her waist and lean in so close that our lips are almost touching,” you stared deep into his amber eyes as your noses bumped and your fingers dug into his waist.  
  
“And then…?” His voice cracked slightly; he licked his lips.  
  
“Then I’d slam my forehead into her nose and break it!” You rushed while flinging your head back in a fake out.  
  
Jean let out a strangled noise as he pulled away from you; he backed straight into an end table in the process which knocked a lamp to the ground. During the whole debacle Jean was cursing a storm and waving his hands.   
  
“Holy Wall Maria! What the hell is wrong with you?” He hissed.  
  
“Bahahaha!” You couldn’t hold in your amusement any longer. Laughter found its way out of you; it was so strong it forced you to grasp your sides and double over. “Your face though! Oh my god your face! Did you think we were actually going to kiss or something?!”  
  
Jean’s face flushed as he glared at you, “No, of course not. Whatever. Help me clean up this shit you made me drop.”  
  
“Alright, don’t get so catty with me. I was just messing around.”  
  
“Yeah well- you shouldn’t have been.”   
  
You found yourself rolling your eyes and sighing as Jean went to his kitchen to retrieve the broom and dustpan. By the time he had come back you had already gathered a small pile of the broken porcelain in your hand. The two of you worked silently for the next few minutes.   
  
“Do you think we got all of the pieces of glass from the light bulb,” Jean asked while dumping the collected debris into the garbage.  
  
“I don’t know. Roll around on the floor and we’ll find out,” you snickered.   
  
The brunet male ignored your joke. “And just what am I supposed to tell my parents when they get home, (y/n)? They’re going to want to know what happened.”  
  
“Tell them the truth,” you replied breezily.  
  
“The truth? I tell them that you-”  
  
“Just tell them we were going at it on the couch real hardcore and we knocked it over accidentally. I’m sure they’ll understand- I mean they must’ve done something like that before.” Your face was completely serious as you shrugged; however, once Jean’s face twisted into part disgust and part disbelief you couldn’t help but snicker at him once again.  
  
“No but seriously, what’s wrong with you?”  
  
“I think perhaps,” you started to ponder aloud, “that maybe- just maybe- I’m a touch insane.”  
  
“Yeah just a touch,” Jean mock whispered under his breath. When you had no snarky comment for him he looked up at you curiously. It was very much unlike you to just stare at the floor with curtain of (h/c) hair blocking your eyes; he’d only seen you fidget with the zipper of your sweater like that when you were upset. “What’s your problem?”  
  
“No problem,” you sighed, “just thinking.”  
  
“Of?”  
  
“If there are any possible reasons that you want to go out with that Minna girl.” As soon as it your mouth and the pompous idiot started to smirk you regretted those words.  
  
“Oh what is little (y/n) jealous?” Jean basically sang the question as he made himself comfy on his couch. When he had invited you over his house after school he had never imagined that events would take such a turn.   
  
“Puh- lease. I’ve known you since we were in diapers, which means I’ve seen things that no one should see. There’s no way. I just think it’s dumb,” you retorted. It was a lie for the most part though.  _It’s not a total lie- I mean I’m not exactly sure where my feelings stand so… I get a free pass… right?_  
  
“You say that but I don’t think you mean it.”  
  
“I’m sorry, who was with you that time you accidentally wet your pants and wanted to hide it so you squeezed your pee out of your undies and into my teacup set? And who was with you when you had to explain why the ‘lemonade’ my mom found in the tea set wasn’t lemonade?” Feeling rather annoyed and sassy, you crossed your arms and raised an eyebrow while your lips pressed into a thin line.  
  
The boy on couch blanched before shaking his head. “Can we get back to the topic at hand, alright? Not stupid stuff that happened 100 years ago…”  
  
“I’m sorry I just thought it was relevant to the current topic.”   
  
Finally pulling himself back together after the embarrassment a minute ago, Jean pulled another smug smirk onto his face and resumed. “I guess you’re the weird one then because despite that and all of the other stuff- you like me. And you’re jealous of Minna. Face it.”  
  
“I’m not jealous,” you stomped your foot, “I just don’t understand! You liked Mikasa for the longest time and-”  
  
“Hey all I hear right now is ‘blah blah blah I’m (y/n) and I’m jealous of Minna. Jean is mine! Blah blah blah.’”  
  
“Will you-”  
  
“Jealous! Jealous! I know you’re jealous!”  
  
“Shut up and-”  
  
“I smell the green monster of jealousy and its name is (y/n),” Jean sniggered.  
  
“Dammit!” You started to yell while throwing your arms into the air, “I’m not jealous but I’m sure am glad as hell that I don’t have to stoop to picking up another dark haired girl as a substitute because I’m too much of a damn weenie to get the actual one that I like!”  
  
The words hung in the air between you two heavier than any words had before. Both of you were rather blunt people but there had always been a kind of truce between you that kept there from being personal attacks; this was the first time in history that the line had been crossed. Suddenly you found yourself in territory you weren’t familiar with but you were going to protect yourself like hell.  
  
At first Jean looked like he had absolutely nothing to say but then he snorted and not an amused snort. It was more of an I’m-about-to-say-something-rude-so-listen-well-snort. He sat up from his relaxed slouch and narrowed his eyes.  
  
“Well at least I don’t need to feel validated by constant attention from other people; you can’t go more than two seconds without flirting with one of the freaking boys in class,” he clipped out.  
  
“ _Excuse me._  Flirting? Are you perhaps referring to the interaction called  _talking_?”  
  
“It’s not just talking when you keep throwing your chest in their faces.”  
  
“ _What the hell are you talking about?_ ” Your question came out with a tone of complete disbelief. Honestly you had absolutely no clue what the hell he was talking about. Where in your homework and anime club conversations with Armin or your friendly chats during gym with Reiner or any of the other conversations with any guy did you ever flirt with them in such a way?  
  
Jean sneered at you. “Oh you know exactly what I’m talking about, (y/n).”  
  
Letting out a terse laugh you turned on your heel to storm out of his house. “Okay I’m sorry,  _Dad_ , that you’re such a damn  _prick_  that you seem to think you’re my keeper. I would say that I hope your date gives you a STD but I actually like Minna so- so instead-” You glared at him and stomped your feet and frustration, “Oh hell I just hope you fall on your damn face and break your nose! Have fun!”  
  
The door was slammed so hard the bones of house shook; you wasted no time in stomping up his driveway and making the short walk two houses down. Eren was at your front door knocking- for whatever reason you were too mad to remember- and seemed happy to see you at first. When he noticed the steam that was virtually coming out of your ears and nostrils he stopped short and held his hands up.  
  
“What the heck happened to you?”  
  
“Jean is such a pompous asshole,” you ranted while jamming your hands into your pocket. Ripping your house key out and nearly spearing the door with it you continued on, “He just thinks he knows freaking everything. ‘Oh look at me! I’m Jean and I’m so great and have stupid hair! I like to think of myself as truthful and honest but that’s just code for total ass wad!’ Stupid key!”  
  
Eren leaned away from your form as you punched the door in frustration. Once it seemed that you had calmed down, or were in so much pain from breaking your hand you couldn’t speak, he leaned over to say, “(y/n)? That’s the wrong key.”  
  
“Go home, Jaeger,” you warned before smacking your forehead against the solid door.   
  
“I’m just here to work on that project for-”  
  
“I swear to all things chocolate, I will break you in half.”  
  
“Okay okay! Calm down-”  
  
Your jaw locked up and you resisted the calling to turn around and punch him in the nose. This day was already sucking; you didn’t want to add getting a black eye on top of it all. (If he was able to compete with Annie then it was likely that he’d be able to give you what for). “Eren. Do not tell me that. Do not. Just don’t tell me to ‘calm down’. Because can’t you see how calm I already am!?”  
  
“Was it really that bad?”  
  
“Yes. It was really that bad.”  
  
“Want me to go beat him up for you?”  
  
You smiled a minuscule smile at that. It was comforting to have something as familiar as Eren and Jean’s rivalry. “No,” you sighed deeply and tried to undo the front door once again, “just go home. We’ll do the stupid project tomorrow.”  
  
After not relenting for a few more minutes Eren was finally convinced to leave you to your own devices. Of course that included brooding for 15 minutes before finally deciding that some mind-numbing TV would help; and when it didn’t help, for the first time in history, you turned to one other option.   
  
Lying on your bed face down… motionless.  
  
Both of your parents asked you multiple times just exactly what the hell was wrong with you. You didn’t give them much more than a few muffled grunts and shakes of your head. It would end up being that you’d remain in that same position until you finally woke up in the morning.   
  
The realization came to you in the shower. You liked Jean. You. Liked. Jean. Did you? You had to admit you were jealous of Minna… in a way you supposed. Of course you were also confused. Why did he ask her out? And better yet why did she say yes? How exactly you came to have these feelings for a guy that once was a little too confident with one of his farts as a kid you had no clue.   
  
You pondered the notion of all of it until the shampoo finally leaked down into your eyeballs. Then for the rest of the shower you altered between crying and clawing your eyes out.

* * *

_Shampoo is acid from Hell_ , you decided quietly as you dragged yourself to homeroom. It was (thank all the Walls) relatively empty when you finally got there; you were just happy enough to be away from the hustle and bustle of the hallway which was happening much too early in the morning. A groan left your mouth as you muscled your backpack onto your desk.  
  
Armin finally looked up from his studying when you flopped down next to him and nearly faceplanted in his textbook. If your actions weren’t worrying enough then your horribly mismatched clothes were enough to raise a few red flags; never in his life had he seen you put a red, plaid button up shirt over a pink and green striped tank top and top it all off with neon leopard print leggings. The small blond boy frowned and nudged your shoulder gently. “(y/n)? Are you okay? Hello?” When you only offered a half-attempted swat at his hand, his efforts increased, “(y/n), should I get the nurse?”  
  
“Leave me to die, Armin.”  
  
“Um (y/n),” Armin’s neck sweat slightly at the notion that he could end up pushing you too far and incur your wrath, “I think you’re drooling on the desk. Don’t you think your being a little melodramatic?”  
  
“No.”  
  
Armin was just getting ready to peel you off the desk and attempt to take you to the nurse himself (he was beginning to worry you were going to be permanently stuck this way if something wasn’t done) before another boy had walked in. He looked up at the sound of a sigh and was relieved to see Marco in the doorway. “Marco, do you know what’s wrong with (y/n)?”  
  
“Unfortunately yeah, I think so. I’m about 98% sure it has to do with,” he lowered his voice to a whisper, “ _the whole Jean thing._ ”  
  
Despite Marco’s efforts to not alert the sleeping giant, your attention was still caught up. “I don’t want to hear his fucking name. He’s not even invited to my funeral next week… neither is Levi. He’ll probably just…” your growling turned into incoherent mumbling.  
  
The dark haired boy rolled his eyes and patted your head. “Always the dramatic one. But I digress… from what I gathered from Jean’s blathering they had a fight yesterday about the whole thing. I think (y/n) may- you know-  _like him_.”  
  
A high-pitched whine from the lump beneath them helped solidify those beliefs.  
  
“Oh… well what do we do?”  
  
There was a long silence between the three two. Behind them a few more students joined the classroom; luckily it was only Hannah, Annie, and Bertolt. It wouldn’t be a good idea to introduce anyone particularly loud and nosy. When Miss Ral walked in she only needed to take one look at the two boys before giving a sympathetic look to their lump of a friend.  
  
“I have no idea…”  
  
“Excuse me? Can I have a moment with (y/n)?”  
  
Both boys jumped as they were surprised to see a dark haired girl behind them; that dark haired girl was none other than Minna. She gave a smile and gestured to you before adding, “Alone.”  
  
It wasn’t like they really could argue with her- they weren’t helping you at all. They had no idea what to do. This was better than nothing. Wasn’t it? Either way they scuttled off to the edge of the class and as more people filed in, the attention was diverted from the two girls.  
  
“Hi, (y/n).” Minna greeted you as she pulled up a chair to sit in.  
  
Some words left your mouth that sounded along the lines of “I’m flying to the cave of love” but it was more likely that you said “I’m dying so leave me alone”. You added a timed grunt at the end to drive the point home; whether that point was that you were flying to the cave of love or dying alone is debatable.  
  
“As you know I had my date last night with… Jean,” Minna took your response as more of an acknowledgement than a warning so she continued on. “I’m not going to beat around the bush about it either; it was rather awful. All he did was rant about you for the first twenty minutes and let the door to the restaurant smack me in the face before pouting and murdering his steak a second time…”  
  
Your face popped out slowly.  
  
The other girl took that as a sign to keep going so she did just that. “He rotated between talking about you, pouting, and murdering his food most of the time. Then he stopped to ask me if I’d like to go for a walk in the park- which of course once we got there he started going on about you again…” She stopped to roll her eyes and sigh.  
  
“So? You decided it was important to tell me that he’d been slandering me while on your date?”  
  
“Well yes and no,” her face scrunched up a little as she replied. “Yes he was quite slanderous at first and I heard quite some childhood tales but… eventually it became slightly nicer talk and,” Minna gestured with her hands as she grasped for words.   
  
Raising your eyebrow, you waited for her to finish.   
  
“I think you should talk to him.”  
  
That’s it? That’s what she settled for? “I’m sorry?”  
  
“There’s about seven minutes before class starts. Go find him and talk to him. You know where he is, I’m sure. I just think it’s really important that you two talk this out now.”  
  
You wanted to just roll your eyes and ignore her; going back to mentally beating yourself up and what not is something you know best. During that one faze a couple of years ago when you had a useless crush on Reiner, you went back and forth between crying to Jean, eating ice cream, and doodling hearts and other stupid shit in your notebooks. And that went away eventually, didn’t it? So if you waited this out it would do the same but… you didn’t want to. “Fine.”  
  
Minna smiled at you but you had already taken off and out the door before seeing it; didn’t matter though. What she had been planning to accomplish for weeks was finally done and she could wipe her hands clean of it- after taking credit for the entire thing of course.  
  
Speed walking down the hallways of a high school six minutes before class wasn’t easy. It was actually similar to Tetris or that space game where you have to avoid or shoot down all of the alien spaceships. Luckily you were relatively sure just where to find Jean at this time.   
  
 _No surprise here… creature of habit much?_  Jean sat alone at a cafeteria table as he munched on cereal and his eyes trailed over whatever pamphlet or sheet the football team had been given by Coach Shadis. You made your way over to his table silently only attracting his attention when you slide into the seat in front of him.  
  
“What?” He grunted before looking back at whatever he was reading.  
  
“We need to talk.”  
  
“So talk.”   
  
“Jean,” your hand snatched the paper away and you set it down out of his reach, “I’m serious.”  
  
“What makes you think that I’m not?” He questioned while rolling his eyes.  
  
“Jean William Kirschtein. Listen to me.”  
  
The copper headed boy paused for a moment before sighing, “I don’t understand you. You know that I don’t have a middle name and yet you insist on saying crap like that…”  
  
“What’s wrong with making stuff up?” You smiled softly, “we did it all the time when we were kids…”  
  
“You said that we had to talk, (y/n). So what was the actual reason we have to talk? Is it about how you look like… something today?”  
  
“No. Minna was the one that told me we should; she told me about your fail of a date… I thought I taught you better than that.” Trying to lighten the mood, you attempt humor despite your rather blue mood.  
  
Jean looked embarrassed as he glared at the innocent cereal. “Well I’m sure that you weren’t in the best mood either after all of that…”  
  
“And slandering me was how it was all going to be fixed?”  
  
“I wasn’t slandering you anymore th-”  
  
The warning bell rang out through the school and there was a sudden increase of activity within the halls; three minutes until class started. When the bell stopped there was only a silence between the two of you.  
  
 _Sweet Wall Maria! Come on, (y/n)! Just do it! Tell him you like him or else you won’t be able to watch anymore anime for entire year…_  you opened your mouth before closing it again and tracing the pattern on the roof of your mouth with your tongue.  _Or maybe… just three months… three weeks… three… hours…_  
  
“Well the warning bell has rung and it looks like we’re done here so I’m going to head to class. I suggest you do the same,” he stood up swiftly with all of his items and started to walk towards the trash can.  
  
“No… Jean, please wait. I’m sorry- I’m very sorry for all the things that I said,” you started softly before your voice grew stronger, “I mean I stand by what I said. I’m not going to deny that but I’m sorry for how it was said…”  
  
He dumped the Styrofoam tray into the trash before turning slowly to face you. His face was rather stony but you couldn’t necessarily read his expression. “Why,” he started, “do you stand by it?”  
  
“Because I feel that I was justified in pointing out that you were substituting Mikasa with Minna,” you explained. “But I admit that I shouldn’t have said it in such a harsh way; my judgment was clouded by the fact that… I… like you and I felt,” you stopped to clear your throat, “… hurt by all of that.”  
  
There was no snarky comeback or joyous jump that signaled he felt the same. It was easy to tell just how deep the silence was because by this point the hallways had cleared and everyone- the final bell rang throughout the school loudly. It was time for class to start. You were late.  
  
You steeled yourself and nodded, “I guess we should go now before we’re any later. At least now I see how all of this is.” Before leaving you decided to hand the piece of paper that Jean had been reading earlier back in his hands.  
  
Jean reached for your wrist instead of the paper when you went to hand it to him. “(y/n), did you read this paper?” Jean questioned when raised an eyebrow at him.  
  
“No…”  
  
“Do it.” He pushed the paper into your grasp.  
  
You pulled it away from him slowly before looking at the bubbly writing.   
  
 _"I’m sure you’re very sorry for the rather train wreck of a date last night Jean- but that’s not important right now! I’ve reserved you a hibachi table just for two at that new Japanese restaurant in town (I know someone that has a cousin whose brother works with a man that has a sister that works there). Anyway take (y/n) there tonight at 7 and try to make sure that this date is a nice one… make an effort please?  
  
It’s time for you to realize that (y/n) could possibly be the greatest option for you. She’s funny, can stand you, and knows how to balance fun and relaxation.  
  
P.S. If I find out that you didn’t take her I’ll kick your ass and glue a horse mask to your face   
while you sleep.  
  
P.P.S. I may have made the reservations but have fun paying for it yourself. I’m not a piggybank.  
  
P.P.P. S Have fun!  
  
Love, Minna”_  
  
You licked your lips before folding the paper according to its preexisting creases and handing it back to him. “I don’t understand… why did you want me to read this?”  
  
“You dumbass,” Jean poked at you dryly; “she got the table for you and me.”  
  
“I know that, stupid. But… why? Why does Minna want us to go on a date?”  
  
He sighed and tucked the paper into his pant pocket. “She said something about it last night I think… she asked me about how I kept talking about you and all. I mean it probably started out mean but afterwards I just got to thinking about all of the things that we’ve been through together… And I guess that you saying you like me adds another piece to the puzzle.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
Jean cleared his throat, “So you said that you’re sorry and I’d like to tell you that I’m also sorry… nothing I said was true. I was just upset by what you said.”  
  
You gave him a small smile, “It’s fine. I mean we’re even now I guess since we’re both going to be in trouble for not being in class anyway.”  
  
“On that note, would you like to go to dinner with me tonight? It’s some supposedly great new hibachi place I heard about?”  
  
You giggled, “Sounds wonderful.”  
  
“And I can even trying out those kissing skills that you were teaching me,” he smirked at you and your face felt hot.  
  
“Really now?”  
  
“Yeah,” he bumped his forehead to yours, “I’ll even break your nose with my forehead just like you showed me.”


	4. It'll Be Okay- Eren AU

“Sasha, I honestly don’t want to take part in any of this craziness,” you sighed. “I don’t even see why I need to do this anyway…”

“Because,” your brunette friend explained while finishing off a bag of chips, “Eren is a good guy and you’re an amazing girl that deserves a good guy. I’m tired of seeing you having to suffer through dates with those Titan-shit guys.”

“But you know better than anyone just how bad my anxiety gets before and while meeting new people! And now all because you and Connie can’t come with us, I have to do this alone,” you whined out while flopping down on her couch.

You had been holed up in Sasha’s cozy apartment for the better part of your day after she called to tell you that she and Connie were skipping out on the double date; leave it to your best friend to go through the trouble of setting up an entire double date with you and one of her friends just to skip out last minute. The earthy tones of her living room were coaxing you, if only slightly, through what could turn into an all-out anxiety attack.

“I know, I know, I know! And I’m sorry for that!” Sasha pounced on the couch as well and hugged you tightly to her chest. “But do not fear, (y/n), for I have invited over the girls and we’ll make you so gorgeous that he’ll be tongue-tied then you won’t even have to worry about talking to him!”

You couldn’t help but smile slightly when Sasha beamed at you.

There was a knock at the door at that moment which caused Sasha to nearly toss you straight off the couch. Giggling, you rolled away like a ninja in an effort to avoid the flurry named Sasha.

“They’re here,” the girl with a cute graphic tee (a chibi piece of bread and potato that were in love) squealed as she dashed to the door. Flinging open the door excitedly Sasha greeted Ymir and Historia enthusiastically. “Come in! (y/n) is all ready to be dolled up.”

“You were being serious?” You questioned Sasha with a raised eyebrow.

“Of course she was,” Ymir drawled while rolling her golden eyes and smirking a little. “Do you expect anything else from the infamous Potato Girl?”

“It was that one time that I ate that boiled potato in gym class! One time!” Sasha flailed in the background.

“I’m sure that we can make you look beautiful, (y/n). Don’t worry.” Historia smiled softly while placing down a makeup bag on the end table nearest to you.

 “That’s not what I’m worried about,” you mumbled.

Sasha shot you a hopeful smile while Ymir and Historia exchanged looks for a moment.

The tall, freckled girl shrugged before offering the best advice that anyone could ever offer. “There’s nothing to worry about or have anxiety about, so just don’t.”

You bit down on your tongue hard and resisted the urge to groan; they thought they were being helpful when they really weren’t. If there’s one thing that many people don’t understand about having this sort of anxiety it’s the fact that you know it’s irrational and stupid but you can’t do anything about it. You could have all the knowledge in the world about how safe or fine you would be while taking part in whatever was giving you anxiety- none of it would be helpful in the end.

 _It’s like drowning without water…_ “Thanks, Ymir. I’ll try to keep that in mind… so what colors are you guys thinking of doing? Any hair stuff going to happen?”

“Hm…” Historia hummed while running her finger through your hair and evaluating your face for a couple of minutes. “Good bone structure and a wonderful smile… well with your (h/c) hair and (e/c) eyes I think that a nighttime look would be too heavy so lighter makeup would probably be better. How about natural colors just to enhance what you already have?”

“If that’s what you think will look good.”

* * *

 

Around you the park was rather quiet. The only noise came from nearby birds flocking together in an oak tree and chatting it up. A bushy-tailed, beady-eyed squirrel was spying on you from a distance; you kept a suspicious eye on it.

It was all you could do to not go completely insane. Your palms were like waterfalls and you felt that if you inhaled too deeply your seams would pop. Luckily you hadn’t been sitting here for too long yet. Sasha had explained that the original plan was for you and her to meet up with Connie and Eren here- that was before she and Connie ended up having to pull extra shifts at work though.

This is the nightmare of anyone that suffers from anxiety.

How long had you been sitting here? You glanced up at the sky as you did the numbers in your head; twenty-three minutes and thirty-four seconds. Thirty-five. Thirty-six. Was that blood? You suddenly realized that you had been biting you cheek so hard you broke a little bit of skin.

As you tried to swallow all of the metallic taste a boy approached you.

 _Eren?_ You questioned as your heart hammered in your chest. Sasha hadn’t made a point in telling you anything about the boy besides his name and that he is “an awesome guy”.

“Hi,” the boy smiled at you before gesturing next to you on the bench.

“Uh- please.” You nodded shyly while trying to not rip out fingernails from the nerves.

“You been here for long?” The blond asked. He seemed to be of average height with short hair, long sideburns, and rather hazel looking eyes.

 _So this… is Eren? Oh my god…_ Your mind felt empty all of a sudden as though you had no clue how to make coherent sentences. “Not really… besides it’s a very nice day.”

He didn’t seem to notice the cracking in your voice luckily. “I agree. It really is. So are you from around here?”

“Not too far from here actually,” you chomped out the words. “What about you?”

“Actually I’m from-” a beeping sound rang through the air. He apologized graciously before pulling out his cellphone and sneaking a look at the screen. “Oh man, I’m so sorry but I have to go,” he explained as he got off the bench, “maybe I’ll see you around though?”

“Eh? Uh yeah that’s… fine. Good luck?”

And Eren was gone before you could even say anything else.

 _So that’s… it? I scared him off I guess- what did I expect. Or was that not the real Eren? But it must’ve been!_ Your arms felt heavy and you weren’t sure if you wanted to lie down on the bench to just sleep or perhaps roll around in the grass and cry. You felt repulsive and gross but at the same time relieved. It couldn’t get any worse than this and now that you’d fulfilled your promise to Sasha you could just go home and do what you wanted.

“I guess that’s it,” you mumbled. The mix of severe rejection and amazing relief made it difficult to see as you gathered your purse and favorite book off of the bench. Once you had everything you started to walk away from the park; but before you had gotten even five feet away you spotted a dark haired guy walking towards you. Expecting for him to walk right past, you were extremely caught off-guard when he stopped in front of you.

“I’m really sorry that I’m late! It’s just that one of my stupid friends got me- ugh that’s not important right now. I’m just really sorry that I’m late,” he rushed out. His eyebrows were pulled close to each other and he seemed generally sorry.

“Late…?”

“Yeah because you’re- um- (y/n)? Right?”

Your eyes widened and your lips felt extremely dry all of a sudden. It was quite a roller coaster to feel extreme anxiety, then to fall so far, and then to once again be attacked by anxiety. “Oh yeah- ah so you must be Eren right?”

He smiled and nodded. “Indeed I am Eren.”

Maybe it was all of your nerves or perhaps it was just the fact that you hadn’t been able to sleep well last night, but laughter bubbled. The laughter bubbled so much within your stomach that it eventually escaped. What started out as a small giggle turned into a rather boisterous laughter that you couldn’t control.

Of course when you saw the offended look that Eren had on his face, it was enough to make you come to a screeching halt. Your face flushed deeply and you felt like vomiting for about the twentieth time in one day. “No, no, no- I’m so sorry. I- I didn’t mean to laugh at you. Actually I wasn’t laughing at _you_ really! I was…” you started to mumble, “just laughing because that makes a lot more sense.”

To your surprise your blind date started to laugh a little as well. “It’s fine really. I just thought that perhaps Connie had said something to you. It sounds like you have a good story to tell though we should probably make our way to the restaurant now before we miss our reservations.”

When he attempted to make eye contact you looked at the ground and fixated your attention more on wiping your wet hands dry on your clothing. “That’s… uh- that’s a good idea.”

The walk towards the restaurant wasn’t a long one but it was incredibly painful for you regardless. If there was one thing you hated more than anything else, it was being thrown into a social setting with expectations about the relationship from others (in this case becoming an item with this Eren boy); and the fact that it was one-on-one was even worse.

Eren asked a few questions on the way. They were mostly about your day and how your week had been- you answered in a few words as possible. When you explained to him that you had been waiting for a little while he was very apologetic which made your heart flutter if you were honest. If there was one thing you were grateful for it was the fact that he wasn’t prying into your life right off the bat; there had been a few guys that started off the date that way before.

Needless to say, it hadn’t gone well at all.

Once you arrived, Eren opened the front door of the restaurant for you. And once you were both brought to your table he also pulled out the chair for you as well. Because of both actions you were torn between ripping all of your hair out from the anxiety and thanking him graciously without any reservations whatsoever. In the end you settled for a little in between.

“Thank you,” you whispered more to yourself than your date both times. How could one not feel flattered by such gentlemanly behavior?

His small smile was proof that he had heard your thanks though.

“So Connie has told me a lot about you,” Eren started once your orders had been taken and the waiter walked away.

“All good things I hope,” you replied with a nervous smile. Peeking up from studying the tablecloth you finally got a good look at the boy Sasha had set you up with; he had silky looking dark hair and the most stunning green eyes ever. Thick lashes, soft looking lips- handsome looking all around really… he seemed to notice your staring. Your face flamed and you looked away.

“You know, I think he tried to think of bad things to say but he just couldn’t come up with any,” Eren jested.

“Hahahahahaha!” The overzealous laughter coming out of you so loudly even startled yourself; your anxiety was wearing away at you. When people at other tables started to look over at you, you cleared your throat and started to hide your face. “Um… sorry.”

Despite the show you had just put on in front of the whole restaurant, Eren didn’t make any low jokes or point out the fact that you were acting rather insane. It wouldn’t be the first time that you had scared a guy away like this.

 _How has he even been staying this long?_ You started to question. Was he insane? Perhaps he thought this would make a funny story to tell if he stuck it out the whole time? Maybe he was even planning to kill you after this so it didn’t matter! _Wait… I don’t think Sasha would do that to me… not on purpose at least._

For the rest of the time you found Eren and yourself chatting- well it was more like he’d ask a question and you’d give as short of an answer as possible once again. There was the occasional turn where you asked him a question too, but they were really dumb ones for the most part; you were just counting the seconds to see how long it would be until you accidentally asked him if he preferred boxers or briefs. At least when he asked about your story from the park he found the answer to be funny, not to mention that he also completely understood the mix up.

“And here’s your food,” the waiter announced as he brought over the plates.

You and Eren both thanked him before he walked away. That’s when you noticed that what you had ordered wasn’t what you had in front of you now. _Well I’m just going to have to deal with it I guess…_

However you didn’t see that Eren had noticed you poking at your food more than eating it. He knew that the food in front of you wasn’t what you ordered but he didn’t understand why you hadn’t said anything. “You should say something about that, (y/n).”

His voice had surprised you slightly so you jumped. “It’s…,” you paused to wipe your mouth even though you didn’t really need to, “I just don’t want to make a scene I guess.”

“That’s ridiculous you should get what you ordered.”

“No, no- I just don’t want to upset anyone…” you were starting to feel slightly flustered. It wasn’t that you enjoyed having the wrong dish but you just didn’t want to inconvenience someone. It wouldn’t hurt you just to suck it up.

Once again your palms were sweating like crazy when you realized that Eren had called over the waiter. _Oh god. This is it… this is the end._

The argument had gone on for about ten minutes before the manager finally came over; the waiter had claimed that it was exactly what you ordered. However, despite your rather quiet and few claims that it was okay as is, Eren wasn’t about to let the waiter pretend that he was doing his job correctly. And when the waiter had the audacity to call you a ditzy bimbo you thought Eren was going to strangle him.

In the end, even though you thought you were going to witness a killing on your first date with Eren, you didn’t. You had pushed past your near panic attack (triggered by the yelling) and convinced Eren that it would be best to just leave and perhaps cool off. The second part of the date couldn’t be any worse than the first part.

“Um,” Eren started while rubbing the back of his head, “I’m really sorry about that.”

Luckily there weren’t many people around on the walk to the movie theater so there was a much more relaxing atmosphere around you. The setting sun had cooled the air which had seemed to also cool Eren’s temper. For the past few minutes you had been walking down the sidewalk and through a few alleys as short cuts- actually Eren had been more or less stomping at first while you skirted around the edges. Now, though, you were walking next to each other peacefully.

“It’s okay,” you replied.

“Are you sure? I mean you looked pretty upset…”

When you looked over at him you could see a deep frown on his face. Unlike earlier he wasn’t making eye contact with you; it seemed like the rolls were more or less reversed now.

“Yeah I was just a little shaken up, I guess. I’m not used to having such a passionate person around me…but I’m okay now. Just looking forward to the movie not being as bad as that waiter’s attitude,” you babbled. Wringing your wrists and wiping off your hands on your clothes was becoming very soothing.

Eren chuckled a little, “I guess that’s one way to look at it. Do you know what we’re seeing?”

“Sasha said something about Big Hero 6 if I remember correctly.”

When you both finally arrived at the theaters, you were informed that all the showings of Big Hero 6 were sold out. You proceeded to contemplate walking up onto the roof of the building so you could swan dive right off. This date was certainly having its bumps and there was no break in sight. You listened as you were told what other movies were about to start playing at the moment.

_Horrible Bosses 2, Beyond the Lights, The Theory of Everything, or Ouija. Great… great choices all around for a first date with me. Surely if I see anything sexual in the movie we see I’ll probably sink right through the floor- right there…_

“Um… hang on.” Eren turned his gorgeous eyes towards you. “What do you want to see?”

You swallowed thickly. “I don’t mind… anything is fine really.”

He raised an eyebrow at you; by this point he was starting to figure out what you were like. It was obvious that you were the type that went to lengths in order to avoid conflict, sort of like a ragdoll. Eren couldn’t imagine you being like that around Sasha or any of your other friends though. Seems like you were shy towards him. _That or she’s just really hating this date,_ Eren considered. “Then is Ouija okay? I’m not really interested in any of the other movies.”

“That sounds fine,” your voice wavered as you answered. Was that rejection? He said he wasn’t interested in any of the other movies- did that mean he wasn’t really interested in you? _Who can blame him? I’ve just been a hot mess the whole time really. He could make any girl swoon with just one look…_

Needless to say, you quite regretted your decision in not protesting the movie choice. You mentally cursed your anxiety into a blue streak during the beginning of the movie, but by the time it got rolling you couldn’t think well enough string together worthy curses. Even when you knew a jump-scare was about to happen it still got the best of you. You yelped quite a few times before catching yourself.

You didn’t mind horror movies, but you minded horror movies where you couldn’t joke about it loudly with your friends in the comfort of a well-known environment. Easing the tensions by throwing popcorn at each other and laughing at cheesy moments was what got you through them; sitting in a theater was different. All around you there were people judging your inability to handle a mildly startling film.

That wasn’t the worse part of it though because there was something scaring you more…

The fact that you were watching a horror movie on a first date.

As soon as Eren suggested sitting in the back for a better view you started to freak out even more. How you hadn’t run out of anxiety yet was baffling. _Things_ tended to go on in the back rows of the movie theater when there weren’t that many other people around, such as now. Did he expect that of you?

Maybe not- Eren seemed like a really gentlemanly type guy but you’d been on dates like this before. Looks and first impressions can be deceiving. One thinks a date is going well until their hand is placed on a virtual stranger’s crotch in the dark of a theater.

You had attempted to nurse your nerves by retreating into the safety of your small personal space bubble; you quickly relinquished any ownership of the armrest you two shared. Eren’s hand sat there the whole time almost in a teasing way. It seemed as though he was teasing you with the possibility that he might just grope you. Or strangle you.

It was like two horror movies at once; and one of them was a little too realistic for your liking.

When the end of the movie finally came you almost cried out in happiness. Almost. Because then realized that Eren was now going to part ways with you… so what would be proper in this situation? A kiss? Hug? Handshake? Perhaps a chest bump?

 _Oh my god will this ever end!?_ All of your mental screaming was giving you a headache.

You had both walked back to your apartment in silence. Now you wished that you hadn’t taken him up on the invitation. Did you send any weird signals when you did? What if he expected to come in and have, quote on quote, coffee?

“So, (y/n), it was probably a terrible evening for you but I had a good time.” Eren smiled softly as he leaned against the wall next to your door. The light above Eren was casting a warm yellow light onto him that made a sort of halo on his hair; he looked like he was glowing.

Your cheeks became red so you focused your attention on fishing your keys from the purse. “Actually I had a nice time as well.” _When I wasn’t nearly having a heart attack from anxiety._ “It was a little bumpy though but not terrible.” As each second past your face became hotter and all you could do was pray it wasn’t visible in the poor lighting.

Eren chuckled and nodded, “I agree. So…”

The handsome boy trailed off which struck a nerve deep within you. There was only one thing to do now.

You ripped the key from you purse and jammed it into the lock. “Well I had a nice night and it was nice meeting you,” you exclaimed. “So goodnight and get home safe!” You flew into the safety of your apartment and slammed the door behind you.

 _1, 2, 3, 4, 5..._ You recited as you pressed your back to the door and slipped down it. Your heart was racing eight bajillion miles per an hour and the metallic taste had found its way back into your mouth- you weren’t sure what you had bit down on this time though. After getting all the way to thirty you stood up and looked out the peephole.

“Oh thank god,” you sighed before locking up your door and trudging your way to the bedroom.

* * *

 

You hadn’t even finished knocking on Sasha’s door before it flew open.

“(y/n)!” Sasha greeted you before yanking you through the threshold. Once you two got all situated on her couch, she started to talk a thousand miles per an hour about your date. “I know that it was two days ago and all, but can I have all the details on your and Eren’s date? Because he seemed like it was very apologetic about it.”

“Yeah I- wait. He’s apologetic for the date?” You asked while taking a few chips from the bowl on the table next to the couch. It was a surprise to you; it wasn’t like it was really that bad of a date. Of course you hadn’t texted him in the two days after the date…

“Yeah,” the food-loving girl elaborated, “he feels bad that you didn’t enjoy it. So what happened?”

By the time you had rehashed the condensed version of the story for Sasha, she had managed to mow her way through a whole bag of chips. She tapped her chin (covered in potato chip crumbs) for a while as she considered the story. “Well yeah that did kind of seem like a bad date, but I mean you texted him the next day so I don’t get why he feels so bad.”

Involuntarily, you cringed and rubbed the back of your head. “Actually I… sort of haven’t… texted him.”

There was a stillness to Sasha’s form before she whipped her head around. “What do you mean you haven’t texted him?! It’s been two days! No wonder he feels so bad.” Her hands flew throughout the air to highlight her point of how bad it all sounded.

“I know, I know. It wasn’t a bad date… I just didn’t want to… annoy him. I kind of felt like he didn’t like me in a good way- well not that I felt it. I guess I’m just worried.”

Sasha’s eyes narrowed dangerously; it looked as though she were on a hunt. “Did he do something to you to make you think that? Because if he did I’ll-”

“No!” you exclaimed while waving your hands. “He didn’t do anything bad! I’m just… paranoid and… I don’t know!” Your head flopped over into Sasha’s lap. By this point you were beginning to feel overwhelmed with all of your unconfirmed feelings. You thought he was cute and nice and you liked him but at the same time you were worried about him not being what he seemed and bothering him…

“Aw my poor baby,” Sasha cooed and rubbed your head. “Let’s talk this over and straighten it all out so you can text him later with confidence, okay?”

The discussion with Sasha had taken a few hours to finish; she was finally able to persuade you that texting him that night before it got too late would be a good idea. After multiple times of reassuring you that Eren wasn’t a closet pervert or anything like that, she was able to get through and make some progress. There was so much progress made that you even agreed that if Eren wanted to you would go on a second date with him (hopefully one that would turn out better).

Until you were ready to do that though you decided to just chill at home.

Tidying up had its way of helping relieve tension and stress, but once there was nothing left to tidy up you decided to cook. It wasn’t going to be a fancy dinner or anything, just a simple lasagna with garlic bread. You hadn’t made it in a few weeks but it felt like a good night to make since it was simple and you could refrigerate the leftovers for a few days.

You jumped slightly when there was a knock on the door as you were checking on the food in the oven. _Who could that be? Oh it’s probably Annie coming to return my CD,_ you thought to yourself with a friendly smile; hopefully you had managed to turn another friend onto your favorite band ever! You skipped over and swung open the door, “Annie, it’s about-”

It wasn’t Annie though. Annie didn’t have brunet hair or such green eyes and she wasn’t a boy. You nearly bit off your tongue in surprise and embarrassment. After returning home from Sasha’s place you had promptly thrown on your unattractive yet comfortable pajamas; the sauce that you had gotten on yourself while making the lasagna probably wasn’t helping your appearance either.

“Hello (y/n),” Eren greeted you with a smile. He wasn’t surprised to see that you looked just as good in your pajamas as you did on your date a couple of days ago. It’s probably effortless for a girl as pretty as you.

You struggled for a moment before finding your voice. “Uh, hi Eren,” you greeted him too before gesturing inside. “Why don’t you come in?”

He stepped in with a grateful nod and shut the door behind him. “You’re probably wondering why I’m here…” When you nodded he cleared his throat and continued, “I’m actually not that sure myself. Sasha called me a little while ago and told me that I should come over here to talk to you. So… here I am.”

 _Of course she did that,_ you mentally sighed and rolled your eyes. “Oh, well I might have an idea. I talked to her earlier about our date and she told me that you were apologizing for it…”

Eren shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. Typically he was able to find the words he needed to say easily, but there was just something about you; when he looked at you it was difficult for him to talk or think properly. “I just felt bad that you had that bad of a time.”

Your pulse and mind were racing. Never before had a guy that you were dating (or in this case had been on one date with) been allowed past the door of your home, it was rather startling. “Well that’s not completely right. It was a pretty bad date- not because it was with you! It was just… a mess but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. You’re… um I like being around you. You seem very interesting and I’d like to know more about you…”

He simply blinked at you for a moment. It looked like there was a slight redness dusting his cheeks. “Um, okay. That’s really good- I just thought you really hadn’t liked it because you never got in touch with me after that.”

“I just have a lot of anxiety about stuff,” you explained while picking at your nails, “and it’s hard for me to be… normal? That’s why the date was supposed to be a double date to start with so it wouldn’t be so stressful for me. I know… it’s dumb.”

He gave a comforting smile. “It’s not dumb, it’s just how you think about things differently than others. I’m not trying to be mean but that’s really comforting actually,” Eren chuckled a little. “I was worried that perhaps I had had really bad breath and chased you away with it; that would’ve been a real shame. Talk about the one that got away.”

You giggled a little, “No, it wasn’t anything like that. I’m just glad that you don’t think I’m crazy… and I’m sorry I made you feel bad about the date.”

“I wouldn’t think something like that. I’m just so glad that such a pretty girl had a nice time with me on the date,” the brunet confessed before digging around in his jacket pocket as you recovered from your blush. “In that case, here.” He offered a rectangular piece of paper to you.

“A Penguin Encounter ticket?” You read it allowed with your eyebrows knit together.

“We didn’t have best first date but perhaps we can have a better second one? Sasha mentioned that you really like animals so I thought we could go to the zoo this weekend and do the penguin feeding thing… only if you want to though. We can get to know each other better and maybe you’ll even start to feel less anxiety around me…?”

The idea of going to the zoo made you really happy and it was honestly a sweet gesture. You could already feel the difference in the amount of anxiety you were experiencing this moment compared to what you had yesterday; perhaps it could continue to get even better. You beamed at him and nodded, “I’d love to go to the zoo with you, Eren. A second date would be great- not just for my anxiety though. I look forward to getting to know you too.”

“Yeah,” Eren agreed in a relieved tone, “I’m sure it’ll all be okay in the end.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As someone that deals with anxiety issues, this piece was kind of relieving to write. I know that everyone deals with their anxiety differently but I chose to use the angle that I'm most familiar with because of personal experience ;-; I hope that's alright! Anyway I hope that this reminds all of my babies out there that even though there are people that don't understand what you're going through, there are ones that will attempt to help regardless and even a few that do understand.
> 
> Have a lovely day! <3


	5. Smiles (Bonus Ending)- Marco AU

“What the hell do you mean you mean you want Annie out of suspension?” Coach Shadis couldn’t believe the words coming out of this girl’s mouth. He’d tangoed with her before on a few occasions where she had been taking too long to change before class or purposefully kicked a soccer ball right into Jean’s face when he was baiting her (however even Shadis could admit that the cantor-fond boy had it coming), but never anything like this.  
  
“I mean exactly what I said; I want you to let Annie out of in-school-suspension since I have an activity that requires her attention today.” You had to admit that you were feeling rather daring today, coming up with the greatest revenge plan ever last night had managed to put you in a very, very, very good mood. You were even completely unbothered by Coach Shadis’ attempt to make you burst into flames with his glare when you waltzed into his office a few minutes ago.  
  
“And just why would I do that, Miss (l/n)?” When translated, Coach Shadis question was more like, “Why in the sweet hell would I ever do something so dumb?”  
  
“Because,” you leaned onto his desk and checked your nails nonchalantly, “I’m sure that you don’t want to hear from my…  _mother_.”   
  
You could have told him that a 4 mile wide asteroid was heading towards Earth and you still wouldn’t have gotten the same reaction; Shadis froze and sat up immediately. Of course a man of his caliber would never seem scared, however the word “alarmed” would definitely apply here.  
  
 _Not that woman again. Not after the last time… dammit._  “Annie’s suspension was a punishment assigned by the principal because of her repeated insubordination during gym class, I would have been fine with giving her the standard detention but I was overruled… as such I will allow Miss Leonhart to go with you for the activity she is required for. However, once said activity is done she is to come back and serve her suspension until the end of the school day.”  
  
You couldn’t resist the smirk that found its way onto your face.  _Once again, thank you Mom!_  “Alright, class starts in 10 minutes and I need to be at the library before then so I’ll just be taking my friend.” Walking towards the door, you added one last ominous note, “By the way it’s been nice doing business with you, Coach Shadis. I hope we can do this again in the future.”  
  
He settled for glaring at the back of your head as you left.  
  
In the I.S.S. room Annie was slightly surprised to hear the door opening already; she had assumed that she and the work she was assigned to do would remain here alone until lunch was brought to her at least. When she turned to see it wasn’t Coach Shadis, or any other teacher, her eyes widened slightly. “(y/n)? What are you doing here?”  
  
Annie’s rather indifferent sounding question didn’t bother you at all. “I am your knight in shining armor today, Annie. Come on we gotta get to the library before the bell rings.”  
  
“What’s going on,” the blonde girl asked as she hoisted her canvas bag onto her shoulder.  
  
“I require your assistance today in order to get some revenge on Jean- and possibly some others, but we’re going to focus specifically on Jean first,” you explained. When you had gone over it in your head 400 times last night it was a little different. Now that you were in the heat of the moment, you were worried that Annie was going to take advantage of this freedom and just beat you up instead.   
  
Cold sweat found its way down the back of your neck.  
  
Annie remained quiet until both of you reached the doors for to the library center. She had to contemplate about this pretty hard; it wouldn’t be difficult to beat you up and leave you to do whatever she wanted but then again… she was intrigued. “Hm, okay tell about this revenge plan. I want in.” 

* * *

  
“Dammit Marco… making me forget completely about dropping (y/n)’s notebook before she found out. It’s been a week- I’m surprised she hasn’t put a hit out on me yet…” Originally Jean was going to throw the sinful notebook back into (y/n)’s locker before Marco had a chance to talk to her but now that opportunity was long gone. And to top it all off, Marco had admitted to Jean that he even mentioned the notebook being in his possession to (y/n)…  
  
Suddenly finding himself rather paranoid he threw a glance over his shoulder; luckily there wasn’t any sign of you. Actually there wasn’t a sign of anybody which struck him as slightly odd but not completely implausible.  
  
Jean had been on his way out of the school before realizing that he didn’t have his chemistry notebook that he needed for the homework. He knew that there weren’t any team meetings or any clubs on Thursdays but even still the hallways felt eerily empty- although Isayama High School was an odd place to start with to say the least.   
  
The copper headed boy could’ve sworn that the hallway lights just flickered. Was that the sound of a classroom door closing?  
  
“What the hell? I could’ve sworn that I left it here…” Jean began to grumble and dig through his locker with slightly more fervor. It wasn’t under any of his other notebooks, wasn’t hidden in any of his textbooks, and it wasn’t even hiding in his gym bag. “Son of a b-”  
  
“Looking for something, Jean?”  
  
Said boy yelped and spun around to his right. Just where the hell had that voice come from?! Then he spotted you standing behind the door of his open locker; he must’ve been so caught up in looking for the notebook he needed that your presence completely escaped his notice.  
  
“What are you looking for? Is it perhaps… a notebook?” You questioned him in a rather faux innocent voice. It wasn’t possible for you to keep the smirk off of your face when you saw Jean’s expression; totally worth walking around the hallways only in sock in order to remain silent. The glare he gave you would’ve been more scathing if he hadn’t made that startled dog noise early.  
  
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, (y/n)?” Jean asked you in a hiss; saying he was annoyed with you would’ve been the understatement of the year. “What? Are you here to beat me up or something?”  
  
You smirked and leaned against the lockers beside you. “Look, Kirstein,” you drawled, “I’m going to make this really simple for you. As you know, Marco is home today so he won’t be around to save you.”  
  
“You didn’t answer my question.”  
  
“Am I here to beat you up? Maybe…”  
  
Jean let out a terse laugh, “Yeah okay, (y/n), that sounds like a load of crap.” He wasted no time in grabbing his bag once again and shutting his locker. “I’m not going to waste my time with those empty threats- I could drop you like a bag of dirt.”  _Thank god it seems like she’s only here to scare me as revenge, I was expecting worse._  
  
With a relieved smirk on his face the boy turned to walk away but stopped dead in his tracks. The cold and indifferent look that the blonde girl was giving him could be enough to stop a train. He didn’t dare try to even move a muscle. Annie’s form may be small but she was still capable of blocking the whole hallway with that aura.   
  
“Gee, don’t look so nervous, Kirstein. You seemed so calm a minute ago,” you chided.  
  
Jean glared at you over his shoulder before sighing. “Alright,” he turned around and held his hands up in surrender, “you want your notebook back. I get that.” He slid his bag off of his shoulder and pulled out the item.  
  
“Yes, well I’m sure that you want yours back as well,” you noted as you pulled out a notebook from seemingly nowhere. It wasn’t just any notebook though. It was Jean’s chemistry notebook; evidenced from the chicken scratch writing on the cover. It kind of looked like it said “Chemistry. Property of Jean Kirstein” but even some specialists would have trouble deciphering it.  
  
“Where the hell did you- actually, you know what? I don’t even want to know. Let’s just trade them and be on our ways.”  
  
The two parties mirrored each other as they exchanged the “hostages”.   
  
Once Jean’s notebook was safely in his hands, he wasted no time getting it into his bag. “Alright,” he concluded, “it’s been nice doing business with you but I have to go now.” Jean turned to walk down the portion of the hallway that Annie was standing in but she made no effort to move. A feeling of suspicion began to gnaw at Jean.  
  
“Why, where do you think you’re going? We’re not done here.” You padded over into the middle of the path you blocked and smirked.  
  
Jean made sure he secured his backpack well; he was starting to get a bad feeling about this all. “I have no clue what you’re talking about. You got your notebook back and startled me some- isn’t that all you need for us to be even?”  
  
“You think I’m done with you?” You questioned before throwing your head back and letting out what almost sounded like a cackle. “You’re funny Kirstein, you really are. I got my revenge for you taking my notebook- I’ll give you that. But I have yet to get my revenge for you going through my stuff.”  
  
The boy blanched.  _Oh dammit. I guess this will be the last thing I remember before waking up in a hospital._  “Okay so get it over and have Annie beat me up already.”  
  
“Don’t get me wrong, beating you up would probably be fun  _but_  having you as a servant for a whole month would be even better.” The smirk on your face was purely malevolent. You could probably make a baby cry if you tried hard enough.  
  
“And what the hell would make me want to do that?”  
  
“Oh don’t you worry your little, tiny, itty-bitty brain over it Kirstein. I’m going to make it very simple for you to want to. Annie, would you be so kind?”  
  
He turned to watch the other girl. Her eyes remained trained on him the whole time as she reached behind herself- just what the hell was she reaching for?  _She probably has some nunchucks that she’s going to beat me up with…_  
  
Annie’s hand started to appear once again; her elbow, lower arm, wrist, and… a piece of paper in her hand?   
  
“Holy  _shit_. What is that?” Jean hissed and stepped backwards in disbelief once he saw just what the paper was. “ _Where the hell did you get something like that?_ ”  
  
It didn’t matter how you looked at it. A picture of Jean on all fours with Eren sitting backwards on his back wasn’t good for his image; and the speech bubble from Eren that read “I’m riding this horse backwards! He-ya!” wasn’t helping at all either. Something like that could easily be produced by the hundreds and distributed throughout the school with the snap of a thumb. Was that a little speech bubble in the corner that had him neighing?   
  
 _Why does it look kind of familiar?_  Jean pondered for a second before throwing the thought away.   
  
“Wouldn’t you know it,” you purred, “Annie is really good a Photoshop. Honestly she could be in a competition for it and probably win- oh why am I telling you this? You see that for yourself right now, don’t you?”  
  
For the first time in history, Jean was at a real loss for words.   
  
Despite how horrifying this whole ordeal was he couldn’t say that it was his worst nightmare come to life. That was probably because his mind wasn’t twisted enough to ever think of this happening to him. Was anyone’s mind and imagination crazy enough to envision this happening to themselves?  
  
“Well what do you chose, Kirstein?”

* * *

  
“I’m so glad that you’re starting to feel better, baby,” you gushed to your boyfriend. Dipping the spoon into the chicken noodle soup once again you made sure it wasn’t too hot. “Ah!” You instructed Marco and smiled as he complied.  
  
Marco was one of those boyfriends where he constantly fretted over you; it was impossibly wonderful and sweet. Now that he was sick with a cold it was your time to finally return the favor successfully. You made sure to come over to his house as soon as you could to feed him soup and massage his temples.  
  
“Is there anything else that you need, (y/n)?” Jean asked as he set down the glass of cold water you had requested.  
  
Being careful not to accidentally spill any of the soup, you turned your head to look at the glass. You rolled your eyes and frowned. “I said three ice cubes exactly. That one has only two,” you lectured, “take it back and put the last ice cube in it.”  
  
Jean glared swords at you but held his tongue. The rules had been laid out for him clearly; as long as he followed your commands for the entire month, the picture would disappear. However if he dared to disobey you there would be copies of that fabricated photo appearing in everyone’s locker and taped all over the school. “Yes,  _ma’am_ ,” he growled before stomping out of the room.  
  
“Uh, sweetie?” Marco captured your attention. His voice was slightly nasal because of stuffed noise and had a scratchy quality to it from his throat bothering him. “What’s up with Jean? And why-”  
  
“Shhh, sweetie. You’re going to tire yourself out with those questions. Shhh,” you cooed before stuffing another spoonful of soup in his mouth.   
  
In the kitchen, Jean was grumbling obscenities to himself. He was trying to make enough noise to let everyone know just how annoyed he was while attempting to not annoy you at the same time. “Damn picture. Damn Annie and her skills,” he growled before dumping the missing ice cube into the cup.  
  
“Well I don’t know about you, but I don’t think a week of this is too bad,” Reiner confessed as he scrubbed away at a pan. He sported a pink apron and yellow rubber gloves as he stood at the sink; no one could deny it was rather a comical sight. Although he kind of pulled it off somehow…  
  
“You only got a week?” Jean asked in disbelief. “I’m serving an entire month,” he elaborated when Reiner gave him a confused look.  
  
“Aren’t both of you lucky?” Connie asked sarcastically. “At least neither of you are doing an entire two months. Why do I have to suffer for so long,” Connie whined before Reiner handed him another dish to dry and put away.  
  
“Because you were dumb enough to draw on her face then brag about it,” Jean grumbled much to Connie’s annoyance.  
  
“So how did she get you guys suckered into this?” Reiner asked after a moment.  
  
“I’m not talking about it,” Jean and Connie chorused.


	6. Dangerous Infatuation- Eren

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dangerous things happen when one party becomes infatuated with the other... never mind when the feelings are returned. Talk about yandere.

Two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago Eren had arrived along with the rest of the Survey Corps at the old headquarters- well two weeks was your best guess. Everything had become so weird so quickly; nothing made any sense, it was all spinning out of control. You’d made a complete fool of yourself more than once and now everyone was questioning your sanity…

They were questioning whether you were really fit to be here.

What use is a soldier if they’re insane?

“(y/n)…”

You stopped peering around the chilly office as Erwin poured tea and sat back in his chair. Even as you took the warm teacup that was meant for you the urge to look over your shoulder and continue your paranoid antics was overwhelming. Someone has been following you, messing with you.

“All things considered in recent light- (y/n) are you listening?”

Your eyes leveled with Erwin’s for a moment before you took a small sip of your tea. Too hot. “Yes Commander, I’m listening but I’m also sure that I can guess what you’re about to say… considering it’s the only thing people are talking about right now…” Your voice cracked a little as you struggled to keep your emotions in check. You placed the cup on the desk once more so you wouldn’t spill it.

There was no point in giving them more evidence against you.

The blond man folded his hands in front of him and gave you a calculating stare. “Everyone has times when they’re not feeling well and they find themselves struggling. It’s not wrong to get help for that, rely on others, especially when those feelings are so magnified in the Survey Corps.”

“Get help for that? I tried that when I attempted to get someone to believe me about the person watching me in the washroom and how someone keeps coming in my room and moving my stuff around.”

“It’s not that we don’t believe you-”

“It’s exactly that you don’t believe me!” When he gave you a stern look you added a mumbled “Commander” to the end.

Two weeks ago everything was going fine; you were even on track for a possible promotion after your two years in the Survey Corps. It had seemed like things would become even better with the discovery that there was a human in possession of Titan powers. A beacon of hope in the war.

Of course it would be just the sort of irony that said human was a boy that you had known briefly in your childhood, Eren Jaeger.

After the fall of Wall Maria your family had dedicated itself to helping the refugees that were herded into Wall Rose. It had just happened to be that the refugee camp where your mother would send you every day with whatever meager leftovers you had to offer was the same camp that Eren and his friends were staying in. The friendship between the four of you was only a few months old before your twelfth birthday rolled around and you enrolled yourself in the military.

Offering meager leftovers to those who had their lives destroyed by the Titans wasn’t fulfilling enough, so surely joining the Survey Corps had to be.

Erwin sighed before measuring the challenge in front of him once more; there were a few options to take in this matter and as a man that was usually five steps ahead of his enemies, he was appalled to find that for the first time he didn’t have the definitive answer.  _Forcing her out of the Survey Corps on medical leave may give her the time she needs to reevaluate what she’s experiencing… but it could also serve to drive her even farther off the cliff,_  Erwin weighed the options carefully as a thick silence settled over the room.

Alone is what you felt. Very alone.

It was after the Survey Corps had moved to the old headquarters when it all started. Whenever you weren’t going over the plans for the next expedition, you were taking care of chores and reacquainting yourself with your old friends. Eren, Armin, and Mikasa had even been nice enough to introduce you the rest of the new recruits; a lively bunch to say the least. However, only a couple of days after all of this happened the things in your room began to rearrange themselves.

At first you figured that you were just imagining it- wouldn’t most people? But once a couple of days had passed you decided to test a theory. After purposefully leaving a fabric bracelet that one of you childhood friends had made for you years ago on the nightstand, you made sure to write down the object and its location on a piece of paper. That paper stayed with you the whole day until you finally returned to your room and found it wasn’t where it had been. The dresser all the way across the room surely wasn’t the nightstand next to your bed where you had left it.

You hadn’t moved it. So who did?

Even though you had managed to gather all the proof you needed to prove to yourself that you weren’t just going crazy there wasn’t much anyone could do about it. No one had been in there and everyone claimed they hadn’t seen anyone else enter your room.

The same day you got the proof and reported it was the same day that Erwin suggested that you take a day off before you really started worrying the others. He’d have a few people sweep the hallways at random times during the day, but he didn’t want to do much else.

Most of the others were already on edge from the impending expedition and it would be a lie to say that he completely believed that someone was messing with you. He’d seen this kind of thing before. No one in the Survey Corps was capable of seeing so much death and handling it as though nothing happened; soldiers in this division of the military crumbled under the weight of their burdens all the time.

Through those few days, Eren had been the only person that believed you. He had been more helpful than anyone else. You were even able to admit to him that you suspected it was one of the new recruits messing with you to which he assured it wouldn’t be any of them. He even told you that he’d try to talk to Captain Levi about it, you had little faith in that being helpful but you thanked him.

But then only a couple of days ago it seemed to escalate.

Alone in the washroom, trying to unwind in the tub, the hairs on the back of your neck stood up and suddenly you felt very alarmed. There was a predator stalking its prey. The washroom you were in was used by only the female soldiers but there was no one else currently in there to verify what you felt; one glace around the stone room gave you all the proof you needed. A shadow quickly moved away from the window once your head whipped around.

You had let out a startled scream which alerted the nearby Captain Levi. He peeked in to check on whoever was in the room to find you holding a towel tightly around your body as you feverishly tried dress without exposing yourself in case that person was still there. Your words were muddy and boarding on incoherent with the confusion and violation you felt but he seemed to understand what you were saying. Nothing could describe how relieved you were when his stoic face became stony and he swiftly left to go check outside around the window, no farther explanations were needed for him.

Tears welled up in the corner of your eyes when he returned though; you knew as soon as you saw his face that it wasn’t good news for you. Levi explained that there were no signs that there had been any person around the window and no one had seen anything out of the ordinary. While the washroom was at ground level, the window to it wasn’t. There should’ve been some sign of a person climbing up the wall.

The last words he said to you before reporting to Commander Erwin?

“Don’t forget to take care of yourself, (l/n). I don’t need you to become a liability to the other soldiers.”

You didn’t bother going to dinner that night, whoever had been watching you would probably be there as well. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Leave it to Eren to be the one that ended up brining dinner to you and consoling you. His angry, fiery response to being told what had happened to you was very different compared to your tired one. You were tired of it all.

“I wish I could’ve been there, (y/n)! If I hadn’t been out exercising the horses-” You had stopped him before he could say anymore. Sharing that dinner with him made you feel just a little less lonely.

Now you were here.

The promising soldier that seemed to have lost her edge only a few days after being told of the upcoming expedition. Cracking under the pressure. Lonely once more.

With an unreadable face, Erwin finally poured himself a cup of tea. He tested the words within his head a few times before speaking. “(y/n), I know that on the same day Eren arrived you found that your feelings for another soldier weren’t returned. Sometimes when we’re upset about circumstances like that we find ourselves looking for attention-”

Your face tightened and your nails dug into your arms, deep enough to break the skin. “Are you saying that just because Gunther told me that my feelings for him weren’t professional, I’m making everything up?” You wanted to scream at the top of your lungs and flip his desk over; never before had such blind anger overcome you.

Erwin noted the blood that had surfaced on your arms. “I’m not trying to attack you,” he explained, “but as I had been saying earlier, looking at everything that has happened in the past couple of weeks and the expedition that’s coming up it’s not out of line to draw the conclusion that you may be trying to ask for help in this way. Perhaps you don’t realize it yourself.”

Were the tears from anger or frustration? You weren’t sure but you scrubbed them away. Your arms stung, your eyes stung, and your heart ached. There was nowhere to turn.

Fishing in his jacket pocket for a moment, Erwin’s eyes scanned the reports in front of him regarding all of the situations that had popped up recently around you. He offered the handkerchief once he found it (which you snatched out of his grasp with a small “thank you”) before continuing his efforts.  

“I feel that it would be best to hold off on your promotion until this clears up. It would be wise of you to talk to one of the doctors about this in the meantime. There’s no shame in it.”

You completely froze. It almost felt like your heart stopped beating. Everything seemed to move much slower than yourself as you looked up at the large man in front of you.

Joining the military had never been about rank for you, getting this promotion would be nothing more than just a small peace offering between your mother and yourself as she never wanted you to join. She wanted a large family and grandkids. You wanted a future- and not just for yourself but for humanity as one.

But to lose that. To lose that bonus all because no one would believe you? Despite everything you had done for the Survey Corps and the life you had left behind. The family that you left in the dust just to serve humanity.

It felt as though everything was crashing down on you.

Were you really crazy? What if you were imagining it all? What if they had all been right about you this entire time? Sure you had been rather upset and embarrassed when Gunther rejected your feelings, especially in the rather cold way that he did, but was that enough to push you to the brink like this?

A feeling of nausea and despair crashed down on you. Letting out a groan, you held your head in your hands. Titans were certainly skilled at destroying a person’s heart and personality but so were other humans.

“Do what you want- and if that means you want to suspend my review for promotion then that’s fine.” Your words were clipped and you muscles were tense with frustration. The chair you had been sitting in squeaked in protest when you stood up roughly and it slid back; the door almost seemed to be moving away as you walked towards it. Commander Erwin certainly had a piercing gaze.

Behind you Erwin had stood up as well. He was going to open his mouth and tell you to come back to the desk so you two could finish the discussion but he reconsidered. People that were upset tended not to listen to reason anyway.

“It doesn’t matter with what I have to say about any of this anyway, none of you believe me.” As a last minute thought you balled up the handkerchief the commander had given you and chucked in his direction before leaving. The sound of the door slamming behind you resonated throughout the long halls. You suddenly felt defeated.

That “discussion” had done nothing to serve you any good.

Deciding it would just be best to avoid everyone, you went out of your way to use all the hallways that you knew would be empty. It made the walk back to your room longer but it was nice to not be interrupted as you dragged yourself along. You weren’t in any mood to explain why you were crying. You couldn’t even manage to drag yourself into your room; you finally crumbled right in front of the door.

The frantic scratching at your arms as you cried left red welts on your skin. It offered little relief to everything you were feeling inside but once you started you couldn’t stop. Alone. Frustrated. Violated. Threatened. Dead.

“(y/n)?”

Your self-abuse came to a halt as you were startled. Looking up, you tried to make yourself look less insane by flattening your hair and covering your aggravated arms while forcing a smile. You had no idea why Eren was standing in your doorway (he must have been waiting in your room) but you didn’t care.

The brunet boy’s body language made it look like he was bristling as a cat does but his face remained tender. He offered you a hand and hauled you off the floor before pulling you into your room.

“What happened, (y/n)? Why are you crying?” Eren’s green eyes searched yours before one of his hands stroked your face.

Feeling slightly uncomfortable with the touch, you shied away from it and shook your head. You settled onto the edge of your bed before pulling your legs to your chest in an effort to create some sense of comfort and protection. “I’m surprised Levi has let you out of his sight…” You fingers picked at the threading of the bed sheet.

Eren was used to this sort of behavior when you were upset. He joined you on the bed before pulling his legs crisscross and resting his chin on a hand; from this position he could still see your face even though you were trying to hide it. “Actually Levi is out taking care of some preparations in town so Petra was with me. I asked her if I could come here and wait for you.”

Your face turned rather sour, “That’s equally surprising. I’m sure that no one really wants to be around me right now… I can’t believe that even Petra would allow you to come here alone. They all think I’m insane…” What had been picking at the loose threads on the sheet was turning into more of violent clawing. You wanted it all to end.

“(y/n)…” Eren took your hand in his free one and squeezed it lightly. “They don’t think you’re insane, they just want to help you. Just like I do.”

“So you don’t believe me either…”

Eren shook his head. “No, I believe you but the way this is all affecting you- I mean look at your arms,” he sighed and squeezed your hand once more, “what you did to them shows that you do need help. You need help getting through all of this.”

As a silence settled over the room, Eren continued to hold your hand in his. You didn’t know what words to throw into the void, your mind had been running as fast as one of the military horses just minutes ago but now it was just as bare as your room. You felt violated, you had been bullied into minimizing your possessions just so you wouldn’t notice them moving. You felt violated, you were being bullied into forgetting all of your emotions for the sake of others.

“Why? Why do you care so much? We had only been friends for a few months before I left… so why do I matter?”

The boy almost looked like he was shocked you had asked such questions.

“I don’t know how to explain it exactly,” Eren confessed. “You took care of me, of us, when everything else was lost… and then all of a sudden you left. Those years between then and now I had always just assumed that you had joined the Survey Corps like you talked about and died. And then after losing so many friends in the Battle of Trost, I found you again.” The smile he gave you was one of pure happiness.

“I’m sorry you thought that I had been dead all this time… I guess that just goes to show how much confidence you had in me,” you joked dryly with a small smile. You tried to pull away your hand from his in a testing manner but it didn’t seem like Eren would be letting go anytime soon so you let it be.

He wasn’t making you feel better wasn’t he? You were joking once again and giving him those cute smiles of yours- that was certainly good. Eren had vowed to himself to always do this; pull you back to your feet when you were feeling down, comfort, protect you, keep you from having to ever put yourself in danger… You were pure and perfect.

“I was just so glad you were okay. It gave me time to realize important things.”

You raised an eyebrow. “Important things such as…?”

“That I love you.”

His reply was so simple and breezy you’d think he was talking about the weather. It took you a second to really catch on to the words and just exactly what he was saying. You couldn’t help it when your eyes widened and you tried to distance yourself from him.

“I’m sorry…? Eren, no, you don’t love me.” Your words felt small and you weren’t sure if they would get the point across.

The brunet boy gave you another smile and nodded. “Of course I do,” he replied.

Was this a game to him? “Do you really think that this is something I want to hear right now? Eren, you don’t love me- you can’t. You don’t know anything about me and it… this- feelings like that aren’t professional.” You didn’t know what else to say, you couldn’t help but panic. Stealing the words that Gunther had used against you and employing them against Eren’s own confession left a bitter taste in your mouth but it was ignored.

Eren’s mind seemed to realize the meaning of your words in stages; confusion, sadness, anger, and then just blank. Denial?

“I do love you-”

“You don’t,” you insisted while still trying to pull your hand away. You were starting to scooch yourself to the end of the bed and head towards the door- you had to admit you were rather nervous. But Eren was a good person, wasn’t he? “You’re confused, Eren, and that’s okay. But you don’t love me.”

“This is because you have feelings for someone else, isn’t it?” Eren’s voice was laced with anger and his grip on your hand was starting to become a little painful.

Panic was starting to become evident. “No, Eren, that’s not it. You don’t really love me and even if you did I don’t return those feelings regardle-” You ended up biting your tongue as he jerked you forwards.

Footing was lost and you ended up diving into the bed face first. For a moment you were disoriented before Eren dug his fingers into your shoulder and flipped you over; his arms caged you in. Fighting him was always an option but it wasn’t necessarily a smart one. You doubted that he’d go Titan but it still wasn’t worth fighting over this if words were still an option.

“It’s all because of Gunther isn’t it- I heard Levi and all of them talking about it. They think you’re a fool (y/n) and just because Gunther didn’t return your feelings doesn’t mean you have to deny mine,” Eren growled. His breathe came out in steaming puffs that rolled against the skin of your face.

You swallowed the metallic taste in your mouth and attempted to gather your thoughts. It was obvious that you had to be careful; this must be what it feels like to be one of those street performers that juggles knives for coins. “Eren please, you’re scaring me… just listen. It’s not because of Gunther or any of that,” your voice was wavering as you chose to gloss over the part about Levi’s squad thinking you were a fool, “and you’re mistaken when you say I’m denying your feelings. Eren you said it yourself, you thought I was dead for those years and you were so elated to see me… your confused. It’s not love…”

You were pure, you were real, you were alive. Years ago you had helped him when he was in need and now he could return the favor as a Titan. He’d keep you out of danger, pure. Why couldn’t you just accept it? Why couldn’t you accept that he loved you? You were ruining everything with rejecting his feelings- he couldn’t have you. Why should anyone else?

The dinner bell was ringing now. It echoed easily through all the hallways and caught the attention of every soldier. Including Eren and yourself.

His attention faltered. You took advantage of that, with one heave you had managed to flip him off of you and onto the floor. He landed hard on his back.

Eren was stunned for a moment before recovering and sitting up. “(y/n), wait!” His hand reached out for you once more but you were already fleeing the room. The mess hall would be no place to confront you, he’d have to wait.

Your mind was racing. Your head was spinning violently. Just how alone were you actually? Eren was never really there for you was he? You were more of a prize if he played his cards right.

Anger, frustration, sadness, paranoia, fear.

Just how far would have all of that gone if the bell hadn’t rung… you shivered and wrapped your arms around yourself tightly. You didn’t feel much like eating anymore but Commander Erwin and Captain Levi would certainly notice if you skipped out.

It wouldn’t be helpful to try and hide.

So lonely…

The expedition was ever closer.

You didn’t want to die this lonely. Or frustrated. Or sad.

No one bothered you the whole meal. If they weren’t already turned away by the rumors circulating then they most likely were by your mechanical chewing and blank gaze. You could feel multiple eyes on you; surely Eren’s was among them.

Just as you were done and finished and mostly everyone else had already left, you expected to be alone once again. To wallow in your own mental filth. It’s no fun imagining your own lonely demise- to die as the girl that had gone crazy. That would be your legacy.

“(y/n).”

You looked up from wiping down the tables to see Captain Levi walking towards you. “Captain Levi,” you nodded and greeted him before turning back to your chore.

“Did your meeting with Commander Erwin go well?” He crossed his arms and waited expectantly.

“It went along fine-”

“Tch I expected you to know better than to try to be a little shit and lie to me.” His eyes narrowed at you. Standing next to the table you had just finished cleaning, he wiped one finger across the top of it before examining it.

Feeling flustered, you mentally kicked yourself.  _Of course_  Erwin would have talked to Levi about the whole thing.  _How stupid can I be,_  you questioned before throwing the rag you had been cleaning the tables with back into the bucket. “I’m sorry, sir. It didn’t go that well.”

“Listen,” Levi walked closer until he was standing directly in front of you, “I can understand not wanting to go one of the dumbass doctors and talk to them. I get that you don’t want to admit you may need help. But stop being a shitty brat and understand that you can talk to me.”

Inside your mind you were screaming. On the outside you forced a smile and nodded before thanking him and leaving. You just wanted to hide from everything in your room. Feeling alone when there were so many around you… they didn’t understand. You had tried talking to them and they didn’t believe a word.

Attempting to talk it out with them was for fools.

You only doubted yourself more and more each time.

You had been so sure that the shadow of someone watching you from the washroom window had been real. But now… it could have been a bird or even a bug. A cloud.

Alone, defeated, frustrated, sad.

There seemed to be noting to anchor you anymore.

You were just floating along in this world.

Letting out a strangled cry, you dragged your nails down your face. By this point you were so frustrated and defeated you didn’t even care to worry about Eren anymore. Your room was empty anyway when you walked in.

Well empty except for a piece of paper sitting on your bed. It was deceivingly small and unimportant looking; but upon opening it, you found it to be rather unexpected.

_Dear (y/n), I’m sorry for earlier. All of the words I can think of and none of them can be combined to really tell you how bad I feel for what I did. I hope that we can talk about it though- you know the tree at the edge of the forest where we’ve stargazed. Please?_

You folded up the note before placing it in your pocket. It was most likely true to say that most people would be wary of something like this, especially considering Eren’s actions from earlier. But you needed something- someone that would listen to you and believe you; you needed someone to anchor you down before you floated away completely… You were desperate.

You’d go and be back in time to lie awake all night like you had been for so many days. Without even a second thought about the whole thing you were already leaving, it wasn’t paramount to make it back before curfew but it would be preferred. All things considered you just hoped you could get Eren to see it your way.

Eren didn’t need to see it your way though. He already understood that you wouldn’t accept his feelings but that could be remedied. Even if he couldn’t have you that didn’t mean that he was going to let anyone else. He had plans to make sure you would be protected, away from Titans, remain pure. You’d fall in love with him whether you wanted to or not… you’d be his forever.

Before leaving you made sure to shut your door tightly.   
  
You really hoped that no one would be going in your room to mess with your things again.  
  
Little did you know that the next time someone would go into your room it would be to collect the few personal belongings you had to return them to your family.


End file.
